Ex-Belgian Leader Guilty of Forgery

BRUSSELS — The Brussels appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants, given a three-year suspended jail sentence last June for tax fraud and using forged documents, was also guilty of forgery.

The court, hearing an appeal by the public prosecutor against the verdict, confirmed the sentence but reduced a $15,900 fine on Vanden Boeynants to $12,820.

It upheld the public prosecutor's charge that the 68-year-old former premier, a major figure in postwar Belgian politics and nicknamed "the Old Crocodile," was jointly responsible for forging a document relating to the sale of shares and had not merely used it as the court ruled last year.